IWDM Study Library

The Tree Society
By Imam W. Deen Mohammed


01:26 W. D. Mohammed: I seek refuge with Allah from the rejected enemy. In the name of G-d, most gracious, most merciful. Praise be to G-d, the cherisher and sustainer of the worlds. Most gracious, most merciful, master of the day of judgement, thee do we worship and thine aid we seek. Show us the straight way, the way of those on whom thou has bestowed thy grace. Those who's portion is not read and who go not astray. Ameen. We greet our honorable radio audience today with the greetings of all the prophets from Abraham to Muhammad. The greetings of peace in the Quran and Arabic language, Assalamu Alaikum.

02:29 IWDM: Today, I plan to talk about society as a tree, all through the Bible as a tree. We talked about the tree before, but I decided that it would be a good thing to continue this subject and to talk on society as a tree. The symbol, as the tree being the symbol of society, because tree is all through the Bible and most of you know if you have held many Bibles that the Family Bible has a tree and they call it the Family Tree. Before going into the talk, I would like to have a word or two on Takbir. Takbir comes from a word means... Kabir, that means big or large. Great, large, huge, great. Takbir, and we say takbir it means to glorify G-d. Takbir means to glorify G-d. So when we say Allahu Akbar, we are asking the brothers and sisters not to glorify the Chief Minister, glorify G-d. That's why we say takbir. It means don't glorify the Chief Minister, glorify G-d. Takbir, Allahu Akbar, do you see? Takbir means say. Akbar, not the Chief Minister's akbar. Allahu Akbar, Allah is the greatest. Standard is four takbirs. When we say to call the prayers, call the Azaan, we say Takbir, Allahu Akbar Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar. Four times in a chanting voice, a singing like voice. And this takbir means that a human being may be addressed on four levels or four planes.

04:26 IWDM: The first plane is what we call the plane of blood relationships. And that's the first plane. We are first, our family people belong into our home, to our mother and father and to our sisters and brothers in a home there. And we have blood relationships and we don't care too much for other relationships. The strongest relationship we know about or we feel is that blood relationship. But as we go older, we begin to form other relationships. And the next one we form is a money relationship, right? Yeah. So there's a world of blood, there's a world of money, there's world of spirit. Pretty soon, you get fed up with blood and money and you begin to decide G-d to come into your life and make some peace for you. Then there's the world of spirit. And lastly, there's the world of divine truth. Most of the spiritual people, they never come into the divine truth. They feel it, they experience it in their feelings, in their heart, in their spirit. But as far as seeing it, they don't see it.

05:22 IWDM: So the scripture offers us the paradise as something to hope for, something to see. We say we hope, we live to see G-d. We hope, we live to see the kingdom. Is that right? But even in Jesus' day, the kingdom wasn't there. Jesus said the kingdom is within you. Is that right? And he prayed "Thy kingdom come," which tells us that it wasn't there yet. You see? So the kingdom or the higher life is something that only the prophets see and only the saints, as they are called in the Bible, see. This kingdom, this higher life. But it's the part of the natural growth of the people.

06:00 IWDM: It's no new world or no new plane foreign to ours. Jesus didn't teach that. No great man in the religion taught that. All of them taught that there's natural graduations. Jesus said, "No one has descended from Heaven except he who was in heaven." You see? Meaning that you don't come down from Heaven to Earth, you must've been there before. You see? So we rise up from the earthly things to the heavenly plane and we come back down to the earthly plane and deal with those things on earth. So we're going to talk this afternoon about the tree as a symbol of society and see if we can get some understanding.

06:52 IWDM: When we study a tree, we see that a tree has roots, a body, a trunk and then the top is branches and leaves. So it's a kind of three part, it's a three part figure with roots in the ground, then the wood, the tree, the trunk of the tree, the body of the tree and at the top, there are the leaves. The scripture has used this tree to give a simple and quick picture to religious people of the society. To show us the society. Now as difficult as some people see it to be, religion is not difficult, religion is simple and easy. But it's the mind, the way you've been trained to think. You've been trained to think one way, so when someone approaches you from another angle and ask you to think another way, you have trouble. It takes a lot of strain on a moving object to stop it and pull it back against the direction in which it's going. If a train is moving in one direction and the brake man throw on the brakes, well he's going to... If he's moving fast, he's going to burn up some brakes. And it's going to take some time for that train to stop and while it's stopping, it is grinding. Grinding against the rail, is that right? 

08:27 IWDM: So this is burning and heating up. There's strong resistance there. Because the object is now being asked to stop this direction, so that's what the world is. The world is a train, a vehicle moving in the direction of the world. And when we come to you with religion, you have to put on brakes. We tried to put on the brakes. And turn your back in the direction of yourself. And the confusion come and you, not being able to recognize that the direction that you're moving in is not a direction that will lead you to yourself. That's where the confusion come about. And the language is simply hard on you because you are not familiar with the simple language of religion. The simplest language in the world is the language of religion. The easiest way to present a message that is very deep is through the religious language or the context of scripture is the easiest way. And another mistake we make, we, when we see something different, we tend to forget what we're in or what we came out of. We think of religion as complicated and beat or spiritual matters as complicated and beat, but we forget how complicated and beat the world that we're in is. If we were to ask you to explain what you think you know, you'd be in trouble.

10:03 IWDM: You see? But you don't apply this to yourself, the same rule that you applied to religion, you don't apply it to yourself and your worldly knowledge because nothing has turned your mind on to think that way. Well, believe me, the deepest knowledge is religious knowledge. And the knowledge that deep, you shouldn't expect to get it without thinking. We've been trained to believe that religious knowledge is something that we can get without thinking. We don't think when we come to the church. We just sit down and relax. And the preacher, he doesn't direct himself to our minds. I'm talking about normally, there are the exception. He directs himself to our feelings. He begins to tell us how much G-d loves us and how many sacrifices that G-d has made for us, to arouse our sentiments. And we begin to feel love for G-d. We begin to feel a kind of communion or a kind of communication with the heavenly ideas. But we don't see very much. We don't come to know very much.

11:27 IWDM: If you study the teaching of Jesus, even the New Testament, that have been translated, interpolated and whatnot. Even the New Testament, if you study it, you'll see that Jesus is not appealing to the sentiments, to the emotions of the people as much as he's appealing to the senses, the good senses, the intelligence of the people. Next time you read the New Testament or listen to a preacher when he's quoting Jesus, think about what I just told you and you'll see.

12:03 IWDM: We go to school and we meet the challenge of higher mathematics. I'm going to take calculus. I'll take three. I'll take this. I'll take that. If you put that on someone who's in elementary school, what kind of response do you think you'll get from them? What will they know about those complicated theories and concepts of higher mathematics? Simply because it's difficult, simply because you can't relate to it, should you say it's false? It doesn't exist? The fact is, it does exist and it runs the great, the higher world. Is that right? Higher knowledge runs the higher world. But how many common people can understand and readily grasp the language of higher knowledge? Most of you can't. And when we talk about G-d and his truth, most of the people think that it should be something so simple that I don't have to think. You do have to think. It's the greatest truth, it's the deepest truth. But the difference is in G-d's truth and the world's truth is this, that G-d know how to put his truth in such simple language that the lowest of the people intelligence can understand it if they'll only think.

13:36 IWDM: But you have to think, nowhere in the book does it say you can close up your ears and get the message. The book says, "He who has an ear." Is that right? If you don't have an ear, then there's nothing for you in the Bible. And the whole Quran says the same thing, but in different words. That if you cannot hear, if you cannot see and hear, then you are dead. You need more than teaching. You need a rebirth or resurrection. [chuckle] Many of the people are actually dead and most of the people in our world are dead. They're actually dead and they have to be reborn. They have to be re-birthed. So for a long time, we are just working on you, teaching you, giving you the word of G-d, working on you, trying to get your ear to come alive because it is dead. It's dead to truth, dead to simple truth.

14:38 IWDM: Alright. The tree as a symbol of society speaks to these things. Society feeds from the earth for it's material development. A tree, it gets the water out of the earth to feed it's body. A tree that gets no water soon withers. Its limbs weaken. It droops down and it's assumed dead if it doesn't get water. Is that right? The roots of the tree go down deep in the earth if it's a big tree. The roots go deep into the earth searching for that water, so that if the rain doesn't come soon enough, it will still have some water because water is always... If there is a... In a fertile area, water is always deep in the earth. So the roots of the tree try to go deep into the earth, so that they'll get in touch with water and won't have to wait until it rains to get its water. Is that right? Now you plant your grass and you have to water your grass all the time. If you don't water it during the heat, the hot days, it turns brown and soon is dead, right? But that tree, you don't have to water it, do you? Because its roots have gone down deep enough in the earth to get water between times of rain. And this is society. Society is like that. Man does and when he forms society, he doesn't like to wait until some natural happening bring food into his environment.

16:44 IWDM: Men like to go out in the field and dig it up and get it out of the ground and store it up, so that he will have a store. And if he doesn't, if the good favorable winds of heaven doesn't blow on him, well, he still have something to live on. Is that right? So the tree is very much like society. Men like to sink his roots deep and you've heard the expression. I'm going to sink my roots deep here because this looks like a good area, right? Alright, well, don't think this language came to you accidentally. All these phrases that you use, they came from some place. They have their origin in some body of truth, but we take them lightly and don't understand what we're talking about. What good will this do you? What good will it do you now to understand the language of scripture? It will help you to see the world that you live in. It will show you how the world that you live in is made. It will help you understand yourself, your life, to see yourself and understand your life.

17:46 IWDM: It will help you relate to the world. No other knowledge can put creation back in its proper order, but spiritual knowledge or divine knowledge that you find in scripture. No other knowledge will do it. That's why civilizations come into existence. They live so long. They run into trouble and they either destroy themselves or some bigger civilization or some bigger force come in and destroys it. Very seldom is the civilization able to give itself a rebirth. Is that right? I read books by great authors on the cycle of civilization. And they all describe civilization as something like the human being that comes into birth, reaches maturity and dies. Seldom has any civilization been able to reach this maturity, recognize the forces of death working in it and then give itself a rebirth. Only divine truth can do that for you. You may ask the question, "If divine truth is that great, then how come the Bible doesn't have a higher place at our colleges and universities? How come our learned men haven't recognized this truth?" Because the Bible is a book that is designed for the masses of ignorant people and the truth in that Bible is hid from you.

19:20 IWDM: But if you want to take a high place in government, you'll have to come into another school. I don't care if you finished Harvard, Yale or where you went. Before you get any real important position in government, become a president or any other real high position in government, you're going to have to come into another school and learn something about the hidden truth of scripture. [chuckle] Maybe you don't know that, but you can find it out by asking around the right places. No, you don't rule over the government until you have understood the higher truth about scripture. Alright. Not that they know the real secrets, but they know enough to recognize the value of scripture. And when the government get in serious trouble, where does it go? Goes to the Pope. May be a protestant, but he goes to the Pope. Have you recognized that? Have you observed that? Have you been following the news and trends enough to see that the government, when it get in serious trouble, it goes to the Pope? Goes to the Pope because the Pope have answers that the government leaders don't have. He have answers about how this society was put together. These government people rule over a Christian society. And when it gets way out of order, they can't handle it. They go to the Pope who knows how this Christian society is put together.

20:57 IWDM: Jesus the prophet, may peace be on him, he was a great man, a holy man, a great man because he got in touch with root knowledge. Anyone who has not gotten in touch with root knowledge cannot truly be great in this world. They're all equals, they are all on the same level. They argue back and forth. But once you get the root knowledge, you stop the arguments between yourself and the other fellow. You answer all of his questions. When you answer the question, there's no need for argument. Jesus, as a young man, when he first confronted the wise of the Jews, he told them that he knew something about the alphabets that they didn't know. And he confounded them. They knew the language of religion, but they didn't know the alphabets of religion. Now listen to what I'm saying. Most people know how to form sentences. But few people know how to use alphabets. If I had time, I could really show you this. Very few people know how to use alphabets. Even in our pronunciation, we mess up alphabets. So all of us have trouble with the alphabets. Now alphabets in this meaning that I'm giving right now refers to the building blocks of the thought that you're presenting. If I say it is cool in here, that's a thought. It is cool in here. But what went together, what was brought together to make that thought? Words. What was brought together to make the words? Letters or alphabets.

23:12 IWDM: So Jesus, in a very effective way, showed the leadership of the Jews that you don't have the higher knowledge. I, whom you have not taught, have the higher knowledge. And he did it by carrying them back to the alphabets. He told them that, "The alphabets, I know their form." So they didn't know what he was talking about. The alphabets, he says he know their form. Yes, we know their form. They're either Jewish or Hebrew alphabet. But he wasn't referring to that. He says, "I know the original form." So this particular teachings on Jesus does not say exactly the form. It never says what Jesus showed them. But I, myself, began to think on alphabets after hearing his teachings or reading it. I read it in a little script. And I saw that the alphabets we use ourselves have their origin in the human being. And if you want to correct an alphabet, you can go back to the human being and correct an alphabet. Brother Minister, one of you, can you write a capital G on the board? I'm just giving an example. A printing G, a capital G. Make it as you make a G.

25:08 IWDM: Now let me see it. Stand away, so I can see it. He made a G right. That's correct. But many won't make it correct. They'll put the top part out as far as the bottom part. Which is wrong. You see that part of the G that's going out? That's the lip. That's your lip. You see the bottom part projects out farther than the front part? That's the motion that your chin has to make to say G. When you say G, your chin has to go forward.

[applause]

25:50 IWDM: So I'm showing you that all knowledge has its origin. In reality. And Anytime you can find the origin, you can re-establish the truth of that particular knowledge. The Bible has been taken out of its true form. We have it in the form of symbolism, but if we know the origin, we can go back to the origin and present the Bible again in its true form. And when we do it, nobody can argue with us. Not that I am so great, but if anybody here would like to challenge me anytime, day or night. I'll wake up out of my sleep, deep sleep. And again and I won't even ask you to wait until I get myself together. I'll just wake up outta deep sleep and that instant, I'll begin answering your questions. That's right.

[applause]

26:51 IWDM: And I repeat. Not that I am so great. It's that Almighty G-d is great. He hasn't let any truth be destroyed. He said, "My word never changed." We think it means that the word... If he said it this way, it never can be said another way. Truth can be expressed in many different ways. But what he means by his word never changes, it means that you can never take his word out of its form. You may hide its form, but G-d knows how to direct to the truth and bring back the original form.
